1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of packaging medication, and more particularly to an automated system and method for processing prescriptions.
2. Description of Related Art
According to statistics published by the National Association of Retail Drug Stores (NARD) Lily Digest in 1994, small to medium sized pharmacies averaged only four prescriptions per hour. Because of the low productivity rate for packaging and labeling prescriptions, a very high variable cost is incurred in filling each prescription. Larger stores had higher productivity rates, but these rates were achieved at the cost of adding more pharmacists and assistants to shelve and replace medications, count medications, and label the prescriptions. Large hospitals and mail order pharmacies use automated machinery to package and label prescriptions; however, the equipment they use is far too expensive for the average pharmacy to own and operate.
Computers and bar code technology have long been used to control the packaging of medications and pharmaceuticals in a manufacturing or wholesale environment. Furthermore, computers and bar code technology are used extensively in the health care field to maintain medication inventories, order medications, maintain patient medication profiles and create labels for prescriptions.
Nevertheless, computers and bar code technology are not used at the retail level because the random nature of filling prescriptions makes computer controlled automation of the process impractical. However, a close examination of the pattern of these prescriptions reveals that most prescription medications are refilled on a monthly or regular basis.
What is therefore sought after is a system that uses the historical patterns of incoming prescription orders to batch prescription orders together such that traditional automation techniques can be economically applied to processing or filling the prescriptions.
Just as computer controlled automation has yet to penetrate the retail medication industry, recycling concepts, so prevalent in the rest of society, have similarly not been applied to prescription medications. For example, in a nursing home, it is customary to deliver a 30 day supply of prescription medication for each patient's use. If the patient dies or the prescription is discontinued by the patient's doctor, any unused portion of the prescription is required to be destroyed under U. S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and state pharmacy regulations. This practice is mandated because no technology is currently available for safely reclaiming and recycling these medications. With health care costs spiraling ever higher, elimination of wasteful practices, such as destroying useful drugs and medicine, becomes ever more important.
What is needed, therefore, is a system and process that is both safe and effective at reclaiming and recycling these heretofore wasted medications.